Kerala - teacher killer becomes PTA Chair in same school!

Happens only in God's own land Kerala ! In 1999 CPI(M) leader Acharuparambath Pradeepan and six others hacked to death a school teacher KT Jayakrishnan, also a Kerala Yuva Morcha member, in front of his class consisting of 10-11 year olds. Some the children fainted as the attack took place in their class room and many had to undergo counselling to overcome the trauma. Pradeepan recieved a death sentence that was commuted by Supreme Court to life senctence. The Left Front state govt in 2005 released Pradeepan despite protests from Jayakrishnanâ€™s mother PK Kausalya. Pradeepan is now PTA President in the same school.

The Mokeri East UP School in Panur, Kannur had in December 1999 witnessed what is regarded as one of the most diabolical political murders in the history of Kerala.

Teacher KT Jayakrishnan, also a Kerala Yuva Morcha member, was chopped into pieces in front of his students, all of whom were less than 11 years old. Today, one of the men behind his killing â€” CPI(M) leader Acharuparambath Pradeepan â€” is the president of the Parent-Teacher Association of the same school. Pradeepan had been convicted and given life imprisonment for the crime. He almost ended up at the gallows had it not been for the Supreme Court that commuted his sentence into a lifer.

Those close to him say that he became the PTA chief on the insistence of the teachers and parents. But allegations have come up that this is part of a strategy adopted by the Marxists as the 1999 murder case may be reopened for a reinvestigation.

The Marxist killer gang, including Pradeepan, that hacked and chopped Jayakrishnan on the morning of December 1, 1999 in a classroom had also left a message on the blackboard threatening possible witnesses with a similar fate.

Several of the students who had to witness the heinous crime had fallen unconscious and many of them had to undergo counselling to overcome the trauma.

Reports on Pradeepanâ€™s continuance as PTA president have come when the Kerala Government is seriously thinking of launching a re-investigation into the murder case on the basis of a deposition by another killer that those arrested in the case, except Pradeepan, were not members of the killer gang and were made accused as per a list provided by the CPI(M).

Pradeepan, who was then a local committee secretary of the CPI(M) residing near the school, was arrested a month after the murder and six other CPI(M) workers were held two months later. A court in Thalassery had sentenced Pradeepan and four others to death in the case and the High court later upheld the verdict.

However, the Supreme Court had on December 15, 2006 acquitted four of them and commuted Pradeepanâ€™s death sentence to life imprisonment. Pradeepan was released from prison towards the end of the tenure of the former LDF Government despite protests from Sangh Pariwar outfits and Jayakrishnanâ€™s mother PK Kausalya.

CPI(M) leaders in Panur, keenly watching the Government move to launch a fresh probe into the Jayakrishnan murder, are of the opinion that a re-investigation would not have legal validity as the Supreme Court itself had heard the case and passed verdict on it. The State DGP has given a report to the Government that there would be no legal impediments to a fresh probe.

The Government move to order a fresh probe into the Morcha leaderâ€™s killing is based on the statement of TK Rajeesh, prime accused in the case of the murder of Marxist rebel TP Chandrasekharan, that those arrested in 2000, except Pradeepan, were not involved in the crime. Rajeesh had told the police that he himself was a member of the gang that killed Jayakrishnan.

Following Rajeeshâ€™s revelation, Jayakrishnanâ€™s mother Kausalya had demanded a re-investigation into the murder of her son, especially in the context of the re-probe ordered by the Government into certain political murders that took place in Idukki district three decades ago following some controversial admissions by senior CPI(M) leader MM Mani.